"Our guide pointed out some great rings of copper that were built into the wall of the fortress on the face next to the city. These rings were intended for ships to tie to under protection of the guns, but in the past two hundred years the water has become so shoal that only a small boat can come near enough to make any use of the fastenings. There are large court-yards inside the fort, where a whole regiment could parade, and the casemates are sufficiently capacious to hold a garrison six times as large as the Government keeps here. Parts of the walls are broken down, and no effort is made to keep them in repair. The chief use of the once celebrated fort is as a prison; they told us that about sixty or seventy prisoners were kept there, some of them being sentenced for life. We looked into some of the vacant dungeons, and thought them the most horrible places of imprisonment we had ever seen. They are badly ventilated, very little light can enter them, and the walls are damp and almost dripping with moisture. Escape is out of the question, as the water around the island swarms with sharks, and a prisoner who should attempt to get away by swimming to the shore would be eaten by these monsters of the sea."
An excursion of a pleasanter character was made to the city of Jalapa (ha-la-pa—a as in father); it should be called a journey rather than an excursion, as it consumed no less than three days. Jalapa is seventy-four miles from Vera Cruz and 4000 feet above the sea, and one of the prettiest places in Mexico. Our friends were obliged to rise at a very early hour, as the train starts at 5 a.m.; they went by steam for sixteen miles to Tejeria, and there changed to a tram-car, drawn by mules, for a ride of sixty miles. The old diligence-road between Vera Cruz and the capital passes through Jalapa, but it is not much used since the completion of the railway.
THE NATIONAL BRIDGE.—ROBBING A COACH.
General Scott marched by that road, and the youths were on the watch for El Puente Nacional, or the National Bridge, where he was sharply resisted by the Mexican army. It is thirty-five miles from Vera Cruz, and is an immense viaduct, built in the early part of the present century, when the road to the capital was begun. In the happy days of brigandage it was the favorite spot for stopping coaches and plundering passengers; many a traveller has given up his valuables at this spot, under the potent influence of a pistol in the hands of a Mexican "road-agent."
"Sixty miles by mule-power was a long distance," said Fred, "and we wondered how it was to be accomplished. The mules went along at a good pace, considering that it was an ascending grade; they were urged by the whip in the hands of the driver, and he was certainly not a merciful one, perhaps for the reason that the mules belonged to the railway company and not to himself. Part of our ride was through a comparatively desert region, and we rejoiced that it was early in the morning while the sun was not high and hot. The train was composed of three cars; each car had four mules for its motive power, and the vehicles were divided into first, second, and third class. First class fare is $6.63; second class, $4.08; and third class not far from $2.00. My memorandum for third class is so blurred that I cannot make the figures out to a certainty. The mules were changed every two hours, and seemed very well satisfied when their terms of service were ended.
